I don't see Abraham as a heavyweight. I've fairly devoured the first two Dagger and Coin books, and his two Expanse books. I'll definitely read the rest of both series when they come out. I own, but haven't yet read, the first two Long Price Quartet books (Rob's recent raving bumped them up in my massive TBR). The books I've read of his thus far have been very enjoyable, fast reads, but I tend to forget them after I read them. I don't think they engage me at a much deeper level than 'fun entertainment.'

I don't see Abraham as a heavyweight. I've fairly devoured the first two Dagger and Coin books, and his two Expanse books. I'll definitely read the rest of both series when they come out. I own, but haven't yet read, the first two Long Price Quartet books (Rob's recent raving bumped them up in my massive TBR). The books I've read of his thus far have been very enjoyable, fast reads, but I tend to forget them after I read them. I don't think they engage me at a much deeper level than 'fun entertainment.'

Click to expand...

makes sense. Are you more in favour of "literary" style prose ie GGK or Mieville and those cats?

For me, it is the consistency of his books that is incredible. I'm not sure he has a book that would be in my Top 5 or Top 10 overall, but the fact that every book is fantastic is impressive to me. Most writers have off books now and then, I've yet to see Abraham at anything less than the top of his game.

That also may be why he is a bit underated, because consistency isn't quite as flashy as coming up with a spectacular book that just blows you away every now and then. So while many of the writers Rob mentioned have written better books, the ones I've read have let me down on occasions too, something that is yet to happen with Mr. Abraham. (But I haven't read his MLN Hanover books, so that may be them.)

I think the writing is very good but the plotting of Leviathan Wakes and the 2 Dragon's path books (er, I think I read two, blanking) wasnt as strong. There was enough action, and the pace was good but I just found parts of the plots to be a little on the silly or contrived side. Vomit zombies in LW, and the whole "you burned everyone alive, your a hero!" plot point being examples. I cant stay entirely "in book" when I read stuff of this sort, which tends to be a requirement for me to remember something as an all time fav.

I am blown away that this guy is not listed in more recomendation and top X list threads.

Click to expand...

I think there's momentum building. I hang out in a couple places that aren't specifically about SFF books, but end up having quite a few sff-book-recommendation threads. When I first picked up Dragon's Path last year, the Long Price Quartet had gone completely under my radar and I'd almost never seen him mentioned outside of boards like this one.

In the last six months, pretty much every single rec thread on those other sites has included a mention of the LPQ. If I hadn't already discovered the series retro-actively, I'd definitely be sitting up and taking notice now.

I voted yes, but with the caveat that it's just for Long Price Quartet. I struggled with the urban fantasy series before dropping it. Expanse and Dagger and Coin have been good, but haven't grabbed me as deeply yet. I'll see how I feel when both are finished.

Should the MLN Hanover and James SA Corey novels be included in this? I think the whole reason Abraham adopted such open pseudonyms was to set up certain expectations from each named author. So while I don't find the Corey novels to be quite as brilliant as the Abraham novels, that is because he is trying something completely different and not so in tune to being in my best ever list, even though he is perfectly competent at it.

And really, I don't even have much of an interest in trying the Hanover novels, because the subject matter doesn't really appeal to me. Once again, I believe it's probably competently done, I just wouldn't find anything top 5 author worthy inside of it.

Should the MLN Hanover and James SA Corey novels be included in this? I think the whole reason Abraham adopted such open pseudonyms was to set up certain expectations from each named author. So while I don't find the Corey novels to be quite as brilliant as the Abraham novels, that is because he is trying something completely different and not so in tune to being in my best ever list, even though he is perfectly competent at it.

And really, I don't even have much of an interest in trying the Hanover novels, because the subject matter doesn't really appeal to me. Once again, I believe it's probably competently done, I just wouldn't find anything top 5 author worthy inside of it.

Click to expand...

I wouldnt include the expanse novels due to not knowing how much is being contributed by each author. the world itself was mostly done by mr frank i believe, but who knows for the rest.